Do Any High End Speakers Boogie/Rock? BW 804 Blues

My opinion,for what it is worth.B&W speakers are "needy"It is very easy for B&W speakers to come off as bright or nasal sounding(at least the matrix series,havent heard the nautilus). So much care is needed in choosing the associated gear for the B&W speakers to sound right because it is too easy to make them sound bad.When you got it right,its a beautiful thing when you dont,grab the earplugs.I am sure you can find speakers that arent quite as "needy" when it comes to the associated equipment.If you want to do your 804`s justice and get everything you can out of them, I think you need to pony up in the amp department.With your comment of not being interested in endless tweaking,maybe its time or past time to move on to more user friendly speakers.Enjoyment is what matters most

No. Cerwin-Vegas or Kenwoods used with a graphic equalizer rock. Don't we remember anything we learned in junior high school here people?!

Vintage Snell B, B Minor or CV.

jeffsel,i agree with you on the no sub deal,you shouldnt & dont need a sub.

two very good points have been made here,the first being from audiobugged when he suggested a bigger amp.

speaker ratings are for reference only & should not be looked at as if they were cut in stone,your rotel is struggling to supply power to the b&w's & with that struggle within the amp comes a poor quality of power.

the second good point was from valleyplastic(hi dave)in the fact that just because you have more wattage dose not mean you need to use it & by having a bigger amp you will increase overall performance in your speakers 10 fold.

take no offense to this as its not meant that way but the rest of your rig far out classes your amp & the b&w's being at the end of the line are exposing all its weaknesses.

im not a b&w owner but before i settled on my current speakers i auditioned 804's several times & they sounded fantastic with a huge sound stage & slammin bass but each time they were matched with an amp with big balls!

the bigger amp vs reccomended ratings was drove home to me as soon as i doubled power to my xrt 22's & as soon as i did man oh man did they come to life & i believe that will happen for you also.

my speakers are rated for 250 wpc & im running 500 wpc with outstanding results.

of the 2 auditions i did with the 804's one was with a mcintosh mc402 & the b&w's were slammin! & the mc352 that was reccomended should bring your speakers to life.

mike.

Thanks everyone for such a great response. I appreciate the diversity of opinions here and I'm getting some good ideas.

On the larger amp side, I'm not just after more bass, but a fuller, more coherent sound. I'm sure bass would help but I'm not sure it would do the trick. Audiobugged: thx for such an amazing offer. To make it easier, first, I will call some of the dealers in Denver to see if they will let me borrow and ship me a larger amp.

On the speaker front, I would like to see something in the same size range as my 804s and the recommendations along that vein seem to be the Von Schw 2s and the Aerial 9s, among others. Any thoughts on PSB Golds, Paradigm Studios, Kef? Keep it coming. Best Regards, Jeff